[B5JMS] ATTN JMS: Quick One About How You Write

[b5jms at mail.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu]

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From: "Brent F. Osgood" <bosgood at woh.rr.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:54:17 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 18

When writing, do you tend to visualize the scenes/pages before/as you 
write?  That is, do you use mental images to help shape the words, or is 
  it purely a "written" thing?

Does your answer change depending on what you're writing?

I asked David Foster Wallace that and he said he didn't have use mental 
images as he wrote, that it was pretty much in his head as words and 
that's how it came out.  I asked him because he did a reading where he 
previewed "Incarnations of Burned Children" and it painted such a 
picture in my head it was like I was creating the movie as I listened.

Since you work in more visual media (or in tandem with them), I wondered 
if it made a difference.

-Brent



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 01:10:28 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 31


Brent F. Osgood wrote:
> When writing, do you tend to visualize the scenes/pages before/as you
> write?  That is, do you use mental images to help shape the words, or is
>   it purely a "written" thing?
>
> Does your answer change depending on what you're writing?
>
> I asked David Foster Wallace that and he said he didn't have use mental
> images as he wrote, that it was pretty much in his head as words and
> that's how it came out.  I asked him because he did a reading where he
> previewed "Incarnations of Burned Children" and it painted such a
> picture in my head it was like I was creating the movie as I listened.
>
> Since you work in more visual media (or in tandem with them), I wondered
> if it made a difference.
>
> -Brent

Mark Twain said you should never begin writing something until you have
finished it to your satisfaction.  So that's what I try to do.  I close
my eyes and see every scene, every line, until it's clear.  If I hit a
roadblock, I back up and go another way until the whole thing goes
smoothly.  Only then do I sit down to write out what I've now seen.

For me it works...for somebody else, it could be the worst thing in the
world.

jms